From Elvis: Taking Care of Business Facebook Page | From his book, “Me and a Guy Named Elvis”, Jerry Schilling shares, “There was a moment when I found myself alone in the living room with Elvis, and I thought about a day long ago when I’d been just steps away from the very same spot, looking through the living room to the music room, where Elvis sat by himself playing the piano. The powerful, beautiful music had drawn me up from my room in the basement, but as I got closer, I thought maybe I was intruding on something personal. Elvis was lost in his singing and playing, and I didn’t want to interrupt his private moment. But I couldn’t walk away from his music, either.
I was trying to figure out which way to go, when he happened to look up and see me. He didn’t stop playing. And, with just the hint of a smile on his face, he gave me the faintest of nods to let me know it was OK to stay and listen.
He turned his attention back to his hands over the keyboard and continued singing the song that had drawn me, a song that had been one of his favorites, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
The funeral procession from the house to Forest Hill Cemetery was slow and stately. It may have taken over an hour to travel the short distance down Elvis Presley Boulevard. Riding in one of the sixteen limousines behind Elvis, I kept thinking about a song he had played for me several times in the TV room at Graceland, a song that was on one of the records he kept in his special drawer down there. It was “The Bells” by the Dominoes, an almost operatic pop song about a man witnessing the funeral of his true love. Elvis loved listening to the way the lead singer, Clyde McPhatter, actually broke down and cried his way through the verses.
Now, I couldn’t stop thinking of Elvis singing along with the record. As we slowly made our way down to the boulevard, I witnessed a sight that was powerful and heart-wrenching, thousands and thousands of people lined both sides of the street, standing in solemn, respectful silence as the procession passed by. I saw children crying, grandparents crying, cops standing at attention with their hats over their hearts, and the toughest looking bikers with tears in their eyes. White folks stood side by side with black folks. A huge part of Elvis’s legacy became clear to me on that slow ride to the cemetery.
Before Elvis and his music, there was nothing that could have brought all these different people, from all these different walks of life, together. His music had pulled together gospel, blues, country, and R&B into one sound. Now here were all the faces and lives behind each strand of that sound, standing as one. All those faces, all those people, had become one living tribute to Elvis, feeling his loss as one, and expressing their sorrow as one. In death, Elvis had done what he’d always sought to do in life, he’d brought us together.”
From his book Me and a Guy Named Elvis.
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Quote From Jerry Schilling’s Book “Me and a Guy Named Elvis”
